


A Shepard in Name A Shepard in Actions

by Seagoatink



Series: Survival Isn't Pretty [17]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Minor Garrus/Shepard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-29 21:30:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10862472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seagoatink/pseuds/Seagoatink
Summary: Shepard and Miranda joined Grunt back by the bar. “Riddle me this, Miranda, what the Hell is so fucking special about this assignment?” Demanded the commander, doing her best to stay calm.The assignment seemed like a babysitter mission. If Aria’s broker was useless and all she needed to retrieve was the intel, then Shepard was utterly lost on why Miranda thought it was important enough to completely reroute the Normandy.





	A Shepard in Name A Shepard in Actions

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Winters_Prince for beta reading this for me!

As a Cerberus operative ship, the Normandy SR-2 was under primary command of Shepard, but Miranda Lawson also had a firm hold on mission focus and destinations. When Cheska woke and checked the galaxy map in the morning, she was surprised to find they were on course for Omega. In the same vein, she was not concerned.

There was no harm to be done in checking with Miranda anyway, so the commander took the elevator down to see the Cerberus agent in her quarters. The doors slid shut behind Cheska, and she folded her arms and cocked a brow to the sky.

Miranda stood. Her expression was hesitant. Her gaze was turned down for just a moment as she bit her lip and bunched her face. When she lifted her head to face Shepard eye to eye, all signs of hesitation had fled. “I know you don’t trust me, Shepard.”

“I don’t trust Cerberus, Miranda,” Cheska interjected coldly. All she wanted was for Miranda to cut to the chase.

Omega made Jacob anxious even though he knew they retrieved Mordin from the slums of the gang-riddled asteroid. Grunt fit in quite well though, and being a big fan of the young krogan, Cheska figured Jacob’s discomfort could be put aside. In her mind he was a greenhorn, a little experience would not hurt him, but deliberately taking him from his comfort zone just to prove a point was beyond her. Jacob was a good kid and deserved better treatment than pettiness.

The other woman let out a sigh as she nodded. “I know.” She took a moment to gather her thoughts again before standing and making her way around her desk to sit on its edge. “I owe you for helping me with my sister-”

Shepard made a face. Her head cocked to the side and her brow raised again. She was being cautious. “If this is a personal matter-”

“I know how you are about being aboard a Cerberus vessel,” Miranda assured the commander. “I was going to update you on the situation once we arrived on Omega.”

The commander had little trust for Cerberus, even those who rebuilt and revived her during the Lazarus Project. She was very open with her suspicions that the whole ship was bugged. The crew, she presumed, was told to report to Miranda with any problems. The human crew, at least, seemed to have those orders. Cheska would not even store her armor where anyone could access it, because she was so very convinced it would be bugged while she was not looking.

Anto directed Cheska and Miranda both up the stairs to Aria’s private nest in Afterlife. “I'm told you have information that might interest me,” Shepard said, motioning back at Miranda to show the source of her rumors. “Not much beyond that though.”

The Asari nodded to the seat beside her, telling the commander to sit down and make herself comfortable without words. “Anto will transfer you the full file, but I have an information broker with intel on me. He’s replaceable, but that information is not,” Aria stated coldly.

Shepard and Miranda joined Grunt back by the bar. “Riddle me this, Miranda, what the Hell is so fucking special about this assignment?” Demanded the commander, doing her best to stay calm.

The assignment seemed like a babysitter mission. If Aria’s broker was useless and all she needed to retrieve was the intel, then Shepard was utterly lost on why Miranda thought it was important enough to completely reroute the Normandy.

Miranda was already digging further into the mission details on her omni tool. “This,” she stated firmly as data transferred to her superior’s omni tool. “I have every reason to believe that you're not the only one who survived Mindoir,” she said in a matter of fact tone.

The first file to transfer was a photo that appeared to be Cheska’s brother, only a decade or so older than when she had last seen him.

“Where is the containment facility,” Cheska said, unable to hide the urgency in her voice.

The man in the photos bore a strong resemblance to her father and her brother. As the first born, it only made sense for Joey to look more like their father than she did. Then a thought bubbled in her mind. If her brother was alive, would it be unreasonable to believe their father was too?

“Sur’Kesh apparently is where he blew his cover. Either he’s a shoddy hacker or he was after someone with high security detail,” Miranda replied. “I sent faulty data. He’s on his way to the Citadel now. C-Sec will hold him.”

Grunt turned around, a massive force like any other krogan. He seemed at home with the mercs of the station where they had once acquired Archangel, better known as Garrus Vakarian, and Mordin Solus. “Jailbreak, Shepard?”

“If things turn sour? Sure,” Shepard replied with a shrug. After all, humans seemed to have lost their basic human decency after her death. What would the loss of a few people mean in the long run? Cheska needed to stop thinking like that. It was dangerous. She was going after the collectors to help save humanity after all.

The trio boarded the Normandy once more. “Miranda, set a course for Citadel Space. I’m going to take a look at these files…” Shepard muttered the last bit to herself.

It was doubtful that Miranda had let any minor discrepancy of this Joseph Shepard’s background and history slip. Still, Cheska saw no harm in triple checking his past in her spare time.

As it turned out, the last ten plus years of his life had been mapped out clearly. E-mails littered his past, few were time stamped, but he frequently wrote about current events that affected their father's business trades as well as his own commissions. Cheska grimaced. There was not a single mention or possible reference to their father's death. 

The bastard was still alive.

“Commander, do you mind?” Garrus asked as he rounded the bookcase to enter her quarters.

The commander closed her files and stood from her bed. She walked the short distance across her room to meet him by her desk. “What's up?” Cheska asked. Her eyes focused on Garrus, but her mind was stuck on her brother. She had no idea what to do if she found her father in the mix.

If he were really alive, that meant he abandoned her after she witnessed and survived Mindoir.

Instead of responding, the turian lead her back to her bed and sat down. “A few rumors here and there, but I was mostly wondering if you almost had the materials ready for the Thanix cannon upgrades.”

Shepard had delved so deep into the pool of information on her brother she forgot to stop by and chat with Mordin like normal and check on upgrades for her ship and crew. Perhaps a break on the Citadel could prove useful in more than one way. “Yes, right. Sorry, this mission Miranda had me take has me pretty distracted,” Cheska admitted absent mindly, further proving how lost in the new discovery she was.

Garrus, who was fairly new to human cultures and comforts, was trying his best. Joker’s movie suggestions were probably not top quality either. He was still doing very well even by human standards.

Not officially being in the military meant fraternization did not particularly matter, so Shepard felt comfortable enough to indulge in her interest in Garrus. She slipped an arm around his and nuzzled her face against the plating of his arm. “You smell like Grandma’s kitchen when she’d make everyone fudge for the winter holidays,” she muttered. Perhaps she would run down to the mess in an hour and see if Gardner had made something sweet and tasty.

Her brother was never around when their grandma made fudge. He was a trouble maker. He would be in town cracking jokes with the guys and city folk, trying to catch a job or some intel. Every now and again he’d return to the farm with a few extra credits and a smug look on his face. Each time Cheska remembered how upset grandma was with her daughter and son-in-law.

“Shepard?” Garrus asked.

The young woman looked up and shook her head, clearing the dazed expression from her face. “Yeah?” Cheska asked in return.

“Fudge?”

Cheska swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded. “I don't really know exactly how to describe it, but Grandma would melt down chocolate for it and add in some almonds or pecans,” she explained. “Then she’d pour it into a pan and set it out in the garage to freeze and solidify while we baked other treats like cookies and stuff.”

“So it's homemade chocolate?” Garrus asked slowly, not sure if he was correctly following Cheska’s tangent.

The woman shrugged. “Probably. Maybe more like glorified chocolate,” she replied.

The concept was confusing to her as well.

Garrus nodded, recognizing her confusion by her expression. C-Sec had charts which made deciphering human expressions surprisingly easy. Granted, it would have been far easier to read her expression if he had one of those charts handy. “I heard Grunt say we were checking on an information broker holed up at C-Sec,” he said.

Cheska did her best to maintain a blank face at the mention of their newest assignment as she waited for him to continue.

“I hope you don't mind if I stop to catch up with some old contacts,” he finished, leaving Shepard feeling relieved Grunt was not bullheaded enough to detail the full mission report.

“Not at all. We should be docked for a few days, so you’ll have plenty of time,” she answered curtly.

Garrus stood, reminding Shepard that turians truly were giants to humans her height or shorter. “I have some calibrations to take care of, but thanks for talking with me, Shepard.”

“Cheska.”

“Hm?” Garrus asked, hardly hearing the woman in his excitement.

She stood, then stepped back onto her bed to rise to his height. “When it's just you and me like this, you should call me Cheska,” she replied. “It is my first name after all.”

Captain Bailey was more relaxed around Thane than Cheska imagined he would be. Then again, she did not connect on the same level as the two fathers who were doing their best not to fail. She assumed she never would have blood related children of her own if she had children at all.

She left Thane in the front office with the C-Sec officer while she took Miranda and Grunt to examine the felon in the interrogation room. Cheska wondered if she considered Grunt one of her own in a way. He was a bit of an odd ball, and she jokingly gave Wrex a hard time after the young krogan joined clan Urdnot. A smile formed on her lips as she recalled taking down the thresher maw with Grunt and Garrus.

“Shepard,” Miranda said.

The woman's gaze turned to the door. The other Shepard was brought in wearing cuffs. He sported a blackened eye and a few lacerations on his arms, presumably from the defense system he foolishly set off like a rookie.

“Commander, I see you're back from the dead.” The man appeared to be conflicted over the fact. Though, part of his conflict may have been that she visited C-Sec specifically to interrogate him. “Here I was hoping the rumors weren't true. The galaxy could save itself without you,” he spat, effectively stifling all concern Cheska felt for the man.

Cheska glared out the window with her back facing the man. “You know here I was, ready to bust one of Aria’s lackeys out of C-Sec to earn a favor or two,” she paused to shrug as she spun on her heel to face the other Shepard. “I think I'm going to go with my conscience and goodwill instead and hack your omni tool for the info I'm after.”

“Wait!” Joey shouted.

Miranda stopped in her tracks to wait for her Shepard’s signal. “Go ahead and hack it,” she said casually and shrugged her shoulders again. “Don't forget what _I'm_ after as well,” Cheska added coolly throwing a smirk on her face for flavor points. She folded her arms and shifted her weight to her right foot. Her hip rested on the only desk in the room as she watched Joey sitting in front of her.

Joey struggled in the chair until Grunt let out a huff, reminding him he was not the only powerhouse in the room. “Don't you remember me, Chessy Bessie?”

His sister rolled her eyes at the nickname and nodded. “It looks like I'm not the only one who's supposed to be dead. Isn't that right, Fuckwit?” Her hands slammed onto the table in front of him after she ditched the desk to saunter about the room aimlessly. “With my time dead, we're four years apart now aren't we? Unless Daddy had to reconstruct you like Cerberus did with my spaced corpse?” Her face twisted into a scowl as she folded her arms across her chest.

“I'm sorry,” said Joey, his voice quivering slightly. It was a pathetic attempt to plead for forgiveness in Cheska’s eyes.

The woman scoffed and turned away from him again. “No, you're not, don't try that shit with me,” quipped the commander.

“I've salvaged the files, Commander. Most of them are encrypted, but EDI will make fast work of it,” Miranda assured the woman who had once been her personal science fair project.

For the first time in a long time, the commander made use of her spectre status. This time it was to release her brother from C-Sec into her care, or lack thereof. The first place she took him was out to get sushi.

“How did you know I was hungry?” Asked the older Shepard, practically licking his lips at the numerous food possibilities.

The younger rolled her eyes and made herself welcome at the bar. Cheska did not drink alcohol, but that did not mean she could not enjoy a mixed beverage. “Shirley Temple,” she said pointing at herself, then pointed at her brother. “Roy Rogers.” Before he could complain about the order, she glared at him. “We’re here, because I’m hungry. Maybe a little gracious too.”

Cheska wore a weak smile, but her brother thought nothing of it. His focus was more on what he would eat and finding the menu to order said food. Before Joey could request anything, his sister began listing her requests off to the waiter. Everything she said sounded delicious, even though he was not much of a sushi person.

“I’m fairly certain I remember your tastes,” said the younger of the two. The way she spoke suggested passiveness. She was lacking the assertiveness everyone recognized her from in the vids and news interviews with Khalisah al-Jilani. Like her usual self, she still failed to slip up. “Father is alive too, isn’t he?” Questioned Cheska.

She was using her straw to dig her maraschino cherry out of her drink. It was a dead giveaway that Cheska was avoiding eye contact with Joey, but he missed it. He too, was digging his cherry out of his drink.

Once he finally won his prize, he shoved it into his mouth without a second thought. “Yeah, business is going as usual,” Joey replied flatly. His lack of interest in the matter was borderline concerning. “I monitor his stuff from time to time, but whoring out my engineering skills made me more chits than dealing with Dad.”

The commander stole a side glance at her brother. All his mannerisms had stayed the same, quelling her fears of a stand-in or fraud. “You have a daughter, I saw,” Cheska stated. She swallowed the lump in her throat. In her hands, she could feel the beginning of tremors. She took a sip of her drink and sighed, hoping to subtly steady her motions.

“Yeah,” Joey replied, his voice was unbelievably calm. “My little carrot top.”

Cheska realized he was probably daydreaming about being at home with his daughter and pregnant wife. “You have another on the way.” She read far too many of his e-mails, she realized. Mentally, she smacked herself in the back of the head. 

“Has Aria been feeding you this information?” Joey wondered, still wistfully stuck dreaming about his wife and daughter.

His family, Cheska realized, was the only reason he was not under their father’s thumb. Though, she was sure he had plenty of pressure on Joey. “I’m a hacking specialist, Joey. All I needed was a starting place,” she reminded him gently, careful to not come across as a threat.

Their food was placed in front of them. Joey did not even hesitate before helping himself to everything he wanted and then some. This earned him a smack on the hand as he went for one of Cheska’s rolls.

“I heard you’re working for Cerberus now,” Joey said, keeping his voice low. His sister was not sure if his volume was intentional or not, considering his airways were probably blocked with food.

The woman groaned and rolled her eyes. The last thing she wanted to discuss was Cerberus. But without Tali on her side for the time being, she supposed she would indulge him. The least she could do was use his curiosity and concern to her benefit. “I didn’t choose who revived me, though I suppose they were the only ones with the resources, ability, and want,” Cheska grumbled. “While I transport you back to Omega, I need you to check the Normandy -SR2- for bugs. Like video cameras, not creepy crawlies,” she informed him, then continued to stuff her face.

“So you’re like an indentured servant?” Joey asked.

Cheska finished chewing her sushi then swallowed. “I think that analogy works pretty well,” she admitted with a nod. “But Cerberus also asked a bunch of my friends to join up too and work with me -for me really. And I will admit, helping the colonies that are getting attacked is what I would do with my Spectre status-”

“You mean, they reinstated you?!” Joey questioned skeptically.

“Councilor Anderson and I are… We’re close,” Cheska admitted. 

Her brother raised an eyebrow. “He’s like, I don’t know, maybe 30 years older than you?!”

Cheska was less than pleased with her brother’s response. Her lips pursed as she rolled her eyes with irritation. “Try something like 17 years,” she replied, “but no, we’re not seeing each other. He’s my dad.”

“We have a dad!” Joey replied without a second thought.

Cheska pulled on her brother’s ear. “You and Father _abandoned_ me. He forfeit his right to call himself my father. You’re lucky I even give a shit about you,” the commander barked through furled lips. Her brows pressed down to her eyes, and the expression stayed. “David has been with me through thick and thin; I trust him!” She licked her chapped lips and inhaled, doing her best to settle back down. “I trust him more than I trust Dad and more than I trust you.”

Joey smacked his sister’s hand away and winced at the pain that shot through his skull. 

They finished their meal in silence and Cheska paid, leaving a large tip.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh buddy I wrote this MONTHS -close to a year- ago. I forgot I even wrote it until I went through to organize my Mass Effect writings. So I have yet to finish this mess.


End file.
